Walking on Water at Zink Lake, and Other Garmin Anomalies

A friend of mine at work jokes with me that when I speak of going for a run, I really mean, going for a jog. This morning, my friend was probably more correct than usual in my case. My legs and back were still worn out after Saturday's run and the bathroom floor tiling project that ensued shortly thereafter. A mindless, utilitarian jaunt 3 miles out and 3 miles back on the Creek Turnpike Trail west, and 54:04 minutes later, I was looking at my Garmin with disgust--and relief. There was an unusually cold wind blowing up from the south this morning that woke me up quickly and had my teeth chattering and tears flowing right away. The turn to the west about a half mile in helped with this, but the weather did continue to be a surprising factor for the remainder of the run.

Saturday's run was...not bad. While loops can be boring, I do like being able to compare one 6-mile stretch to another, and another...and yes, one more. With Saturday being my last long outing before Springfield, I decided to forgo the 2-mile out-and-back that would have been necessary to complete our scheduled 22 miles, and I simply decided to run the loop for a fourth time for 24 miles. The final loop was very lonely, but I kept telling myself that loneliness was good, since I'll probably be pretty lonely both in Springfield and in Las Vegas. It was a great opportunity to work on the mental aspect of the race--an aspect with which I have a lot of trouble. I have become so accustomed to chatting for 18 miles or so, and completely forgetting about the task at hand, which is nice at times, but not especially realistic in the context of a race.

I must confess, I did sneak my Garmin in under my glove this past Saturday, but I was very good about not checking it, and my pace remained consistent on all four loops. Typically on my long days, I don't check it too often, especially when I know the path well, and I know exactly how many miles I will end up with. But apparently the Runners World gods were watching, and they knew I was being sneaky, so they sabotaged my efforts to have a harmless little "recording" of the morning's run. About 2 miles in, I peeked under my glove at my beloved Garmin (at someone else's behest, I'm sure), and to my chagrin, I realized that it had somehow stopped almost immediately after I left Veteran's Park. Probably hit the button twice in my nervousness at using the forbidden device. I started it back, but it was too late: my time, distance, and pace recordings were already screwed up.

When I later plugged my Garmin into my computer and uploaded the data to mapmyrun.com, the map showed a straight line from Veteran's Park to the path on the west side of the river (to the very spot where I had realized the problem and restarted my Garmin), at a diagonal that crossed John Zink Lake for close to a mile.



Pretty impressive running, I'd say. If only I could have done this at Lake Hefner this past April! Of course, it wouldn't have helped my time at all, but running across water probably would have made me feel better about the race in general.

The fact that Springfield is only two weeks away hit me last Thursday during my morning run, and to be quite honest, it scared the hell of out of me quite a bit. Doesn't matter that it's not my first, nor that I have been running 20+ miles during several of my Saturday runs this past month. It is still daunting, and after OKC, perhaps even moreso, now that I know what to expect.

I recently hunted down the insoles I had previously been using in an attempt to combat some PF I was experiencing with my old Asics, and put them in my Nikes. My "new" Nikes (not so new anymore with about 350 miles on them) have really been tough on my feet. Felt like I was running with wooden planks strapped to my feet the Saturday before last without them! My hope is that the extra padding from the insoles will help. I will definitely be looking at New Balance, Saucony, and maybe even that Pearl...something brand after Springfield. I will probably retire the Nikes with a little less than 500 miles on them, but really, they have been problematic from the start.

Apologies for the unusually long post. Took some vacation days last week, and I'm catching up.

10-19-09
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 54:04
Avg. Mile Pace: 9

10-17-09
Distance: 24.4 miles